Ashina Reservoir (Tutorial) - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Guide - IGN (2025)

Welcome to IGN's Walkthrough and Guide for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This area-based Walkthrough will cover all enemy encounters, items to pick up, secrets to find and more as you complete your journey as the shinobi known as The Wolf.

This guide contains information on the tutorial area of the game, taking place at the Ashina Reservoir location.

Ashina Reservoir

advertisement

Video Guide: Ashina Reservoir (Part 1)

20 years after the Ashina clan rose to dominance in a particular region of Japan by staging a coup, the clan is now on the brink of collapse. In that time, a young battlefield orphan known as Wolf was taken in by a master Shinobi known as Owl, and trained for one purpose - to protect the young Lord Kuro, who until recently was under the umbrella of the Ashina clan.

However, in recent years, the shinobi known as Wolf has lost everything - his mentor, and his master, and now languishes at the bottom of a well in the Ashina Reservoir. A mysterious woman tosses down a letter, urging the shinobi to rise once more to rescue his lord.

As you begin the game, you’ll take control of Wolf with very little health, and no weapon to speak of. The only item in your inventory is the Homeward Idol - used to transport you back to the last safe location you rested at.

If you aren’t thrilled with the idea of having very little health, you can actually use the Homeward Idol right now to respawn in the pit with full health - dying at any point in this area will do the same.

Grab the item that the woman tossed into the pit - the Ornamental Letter. It bids you to find the nearby moon-view tower, and use your skills to remain unseen - weapons will not be needed. There are two passages leading out: one into a water-logged tunnel you can swim down, but there’s no way to get out here. Take the other passage and start jumping upwards to climb the ledges.

As you reach the second ledge, jump once against the wall and jump again to clear the ledge and hop up to the next platform. You can use this wall-jumping ability to get up to high areas, and even bounce off walls for longer periods if they’re close enough together.

Leaving the old well, you’ll be in the Ashina Reservoir proper. In the distance you can see the towering Ashina Castle, while behind you is a path leading to where the woman dropped your note - though she is nowhere to be found.

Move forward to approach a large canyon, and check on the left for a wall lined with yellow marking to shimmy across by hugging the wall. Keep hugging the wall as you cross to peek around the far edge. Here you’ll see two guards talking to a Samurai General on the other side of some long grass.

Press in on the left control stick to enter a stealth position, which will let you pass through the bushes without alerting the two guards, and keep to the left wall as you make for the small hut behind them. So long as your vision has the darkened edges, you’ll be in stealth and out of sight. Crawl from the bushes to the crawlspace under the hut, and look for two more soldiers in the hut that you can eavesdrop on.

advertisement

Clamber out the other side of the building, which will put you in view of the tower that was spoken of, where the Divine Heir is being held captive by Lord Genichiro. Stick to the bushes as you make your way down until you can eavesdrop on two more soldiers by the ledge. It seems that while the door is locked, a cliffside wall has a hole in it - which is your ticket inside.

Quickly drop down to the ledge under the guards, and hang from the ledge marked with yellow edges. Shimmy across this ledge, and climb up the other side, before jumping a short gap to find another yellow-edged ledge you can jump up and grab. Keep jumping and climbing until you reach the base of the tower, then shimmy left to find the hole in the wall to climb up into.

You’ll finally be reunited with the young Lord Kuro, who apparently hasn’t seen you in some time. To celebrate, he’ll present you with your trusted katana sword, Kusabimaru. With your sword in hand, it’s time to find a way out and rescue Lord Kuro from this place.

Speak to him, and he’ll give you something for your wounds - a Healing Gourd. This item lets you replenish a modest amount of health quickly, but once used, you’ll need to find a place to rest to replenish it (or when you awaken after being killed). He’ll bid you to find a secret passage beneath the castle’s moat bridge, and then summon him when you have cleared a path.

Before leaving, be sure to check the upstairs to find a Pellet. This healing item doesn’t replenish your Vitality as fast as the Healing Gourd, but it does heal over time, and you can find many more in your travels. Use either healing item if you need to, and then open the door leading out of the tower.

Find the Secret Escape Route

It’s time to begin your combat lessons - and there are two nearby guards to practice on, so you may want to get them apart to take them on one at a time. Combat in Sekiro is all about two things: Vitality and Posture. Deal enough damage to deplete an enemy’s health, and they’ll fall. However, by keeping a steady offense, breaking their guard, and deflecting incoming attacks at the right time, you can also break their Posture. If an enemy’s posture is broken, you can attack once more when the red dot appears to perform a brutal Deathblow attack.

As you fight on, you may find that many enemies’ Posture can be broken long before their health depletes - which is why expertly timed blocks are so effective. If you hear a high-pitched clang with a burst of sparks - you’ll know you’ve done it correctly, while a duller metallic ring means you’ve just performed an ordinary block. In particular, these guards may take a few attacks to kill head on, but one perfectly timed deflection will instantly break their Posture.

Another effective method is stealth Deathblows. If the guard nearest you doesn’t see you sneak up to him, you can attack from behind to instantly take him out, and make the rest of the fight against other guards all the easier.

However you take these two guards on, head down to the bottom of the stairs to face on more guard. Remember that holding block, or blocking before an attack lands won’t damage you, but it can damage your own posture. If you block too much or at the wrong times, you may have your own Posture broken and be knocked to the ground.

In particular, Soldiers wearing the signature bamboo hats are often a lot more defensive than others, and will try to deflect your attacks before making a move - so counter their counter to break their posture. You can also hold the attack button to charge up a damaging thrust attack that can deal damage through an enemy's block and deal more posture damage - but some stronger enemies may still be able to deflect it.

advertisement

Around the corner you can spy a large gate with two guards, but you can also head back up the path to where you snuck through the bushes. If you sneak back through under the house, you can likely get the drop on the lone guard up here with a Stealth Deathblow. From up here, you can also jump up onto the wall leading to the gate, and spy the two guards, as well as two more on the other side.

You may want to lure the two by the front of the gate to you, and then return to climb the gate to see the other two guards below you. When jumping off, if you position yourself above an enemy while falling down, you can press attack to perform a Plunging Deathblow - but make sure you’re almost directly on top of your foe (and that they haven’t spotted you) or you’ll miss.

Mini-Boss - Leader Shigenori Yamauchi

Up ahead is a Samurai General, your first Mini-Boss - Leader Shigenori Yamauchi. He has two Deathblow markers, requiring you to perform a Deathblow twice against him. Be wary of his big swings - they can deal immense damage and kill you in just a few hits. It may be tempting to try and dodge all around him, but your dodges don’t cover that much distance - especially away from his wide sweeping swings.

Instead, you’re going to want to watch his swings carefully, and wait for the blade to fall before deflecting at the last moment, and follow up with a few attacks of your own.

Don’t get too greedy, as he’ll start blocking your attacks too, and follow up with his own, so be ready to move back and block at a moment’s notice. As long as you keep up pressure with deflections and counter attacks, you can keep his posture on the rise and break it to get a Deathblow. If you don’t time your blocks right and your own Posture Meter gets too big, backpedal and dodge to get out of range and wait for it to recover (holding block makes it recover faster) - the more health you have, the faster it’ll lower (and the same goes for the leader).

If you die, you’ll be sent back to the tower, and must clear a path once more - but just consider it practice for this Mini-boss, and keep trying to time your deflects properly. The faster you get the hang of prioritizing deflections over dodging or dashing, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

When Leader Shigenori Yamauchi falls, he’ll drop a Pellet for you to heal back up with - and he won’t reappear if you die after this point.

The door ahead is locked from this side, so move to the right to find a path along the wall where you can find a Fistful of Ash - which can be thrown at close range to temporarily disorient enemies in battle. Cross the broken tree or hug the wall to get to the other side of the path that leads to the underside of the bridge and climb up. As you shimmy along the ledge, you can eavesdrop on two guards about the secret entrance nearby (they won’t actually be moving to guard it so don’t worry).

advertisement

However, as you climb up to the path under the bridge, you can spy an odd little creature in a straw hat. Don’t be fooled, this little Assassin will get very aggressive once he notices you - throwing projectiles or putting down smoke bombs to try and jump onto you for unblockable attacks. Quickly race up to the creature and put the beatdown before it can react to kill it quickly.

As you get to the other side of bridge, hang down on the left side and then drop down to find a Pellet, and keep jumping down to the bottom of the bridge. Look for the door that leads to the escape route, and call the Young Lord. If you really want to explore the moat first, you’ll find a few poisonous Crawling Geckos - but there’s really no reason to antagonize them.

Boss Battle - Genichiro Ashina

Move through passage with Young Lord to reach a large field - where an enemy stands to stop you. He is Genichiro Ashina and he is TOUGH. You can play this easy or you can play it hard. The easy way is to be defeated - as its part of the story. Sorry.

The hard way involves trying to hold your own against this guy, and he’s much more aggressive than the Samurai Leader - he’ll come at you with multiple combo attacks, unblockable thrusts, and wide sweeping attacks you can only jump over to evade. It only takes a few mistakes for things to go badly, so don’t feel bad if you are beaten - it’s part of the story!

Of course, you CAN still beat Genichiro in this fight, even if the odds are stacked against you. It requires little room for error, and you'll need to be ready to dodge to the side of his thrust attacks, and jump on top of him when he goes for a low spinning sweep attack. As for his devastating mult-hit combo, you'll have to quickly learn the rhythm of his strikes and deflect each one with a tap of your block button to rapidly increase his posture damage.

Even if you do manage to take down both his health bars, Genichiro will favor victory of honor, and still manage to win the day.

As Wolf is defeated and Lord Kuro is recaptured, things will seem bleak indeed - but fate has a different story in mind for this shinobi, and you'll soon awaken in the next region, the Ashina Outskirts.

Up Next: Ashina Outskirts Walkthrough

PreviousWalkthroughNextAshina Outskirts Walkthrough

Top Guide Sections

  • Essential Tips to Know When Playing Sekiro
  • Changes in New Game Plus
  • Things to Do First in Sekiro
  • How Combat Works in Sekiro

Was this guide helpful?

In This Guide

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

FromSoftware

StadiaPlayStation 4PCXbox One
Ashina Reservoir (Tutorial) - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Guide - IGN (2025)

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Trent Wehner

Last Updated:

Views: 6468

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (76 voted)

Reviews: 83% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Trent Wehner

Birthday: 1993-03-14

Address: 872 Kevin Squares, New Codyville, AK 01785-0416

Phone: +18698800304764

Job: Senior Farming Developer

Hobby: Paintball, Calligraphy, Hunting, Flying disc, Lapidary, Rafting, Inline skating

Introduction: My name is Trent Wehner, I am a talented, brainy, zealous, light, funny, gleaming, attractive person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.